CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY)-- A couple says an opportunistic thief has made their wedding celebration a nightmare.
Someone stole the newlyweds' gifts from their car before they could leave for their honeymoon.
Weddings generally breed euphoric feelings, long gazes, and emotional kisses, but these newlyweds received a quick snap back to reality.
"It's just a despicable thing for somebody to do,” said newlywed Shannon Wise. "Kinda took the joy out of the whole night,” said her husband, Stephen.
After their nuptials on Saturday, they decided to stay at this hotel so they could have some time alone.
The next morning, Shannon says she woke up early, went downstairs, and immediately saw clues that something was wrong the closer she got to their car.
"Some of our flower petals were on the ground. I thought that was odd, so I looked in car, and found our card box open and all of our wedding gifts gone."
Her husband had accidentally left the doors unlocked, and someone cashed in.
"They didn't rifle through the back. They didn't go through anything in the front. None of the consoles were open. They just went straight for that box, opened the box, and straight... and just took out the cards,” said Stephen.
Those cards were full of money for their honeymoon.
"We just saved and scrimped for our wedding, so we weren't sitting on a whole lot of money to go on a honeymoon. That was, that was kind of what was going to make it possible," said Stephen.
And now, it's all gone.
"We didn't have those cards from our friends to put in a scrapbook or to look back and thank them for," said Shannon.
"It was all memories that we were going to store from our wedding. And somebody took them for money," added Stephen.
